


Summer Talks

by lizardcookie



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, jily, pre-dating jily is one of my favorite things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-02
Updated: 2016-01-02
Packaged: 2018-05-11 02:40:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5610811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizardcookie/pseuds/lizardcookie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For a brief moment, James wondered if Sirius had fucked with his glasses again as a joke. Lily Evans stood on his doorstep in a thin, pink summer dress and a big hat that pulled her short hair out of her face. His hand jumped to his hair and her eyes narrowed rather maliciously.</p>
<p>“I have a bone to pick with you,” Lily announced, and then she stormed inside.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Summer Talks

“Get the door.”

“Mum’ll get it.”

“No, she’s out with Augusta Longbottom.”

“Dad’ll get it.”

“He’s presenting a paper at the Ministry.”

“ _You_ get it.”

Sirius threw the bag of Bertie Bott’s at James’ head. “I got it last time, remember? That Pureblood witch who came here to petition your parents for support?“

“Fine,” James huffed, standing for the first time in hours. “Don’t you dare eat all the treacle tart beans. I know you did last time.”

“You ate them while sloshed, mate, I don’t know what else to tell you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” James dismissed with a wave of his hand. “Just know I’m onto you.”

Maybe it was for the best that James had finally decided to answer the knocks at the door, because holy hell did this person not know how to give up. The general knock-three-times-then-accept-defeat rule didn’t seem to apply to whoever stood on the other side of the large mahogany frame, which James pulled open with a question that died on his lips.

For a brief moment, James wondered if Sirius had fucked with his glasses again as a joke. Lily Evans stood on his doorstep in a thin, pink summer dress and a big hat that pulled her short hair out of her face. His hand jumped to his hair and her eyes narrowed rather maliciously.

“I have a bone to pick with you,” Lily announced, and then she stormed inside.

“After you” James said fruitlessly, turning to follow Lily though he wasn’t sure what she had planned. She headed straight through the foyer with James at her heels, but came to a full stop when she spotted Sirius lounging on the couch in the sitting room.

“Merlin,” Lily gripped the bridge of her nose in apparent annoyance, “of course you’re here.”

Sirius rose his eyebrows at the scene, of Lily marching self-righteously in and James’ confusion written across his eyebrows, and decided he wanted no part of whatever fucked-up conversation he was sure was about to ensue.

“I _live_ here, Evans,” he told her from the lounge, but he sat up straight now. “There’s no need to get your knickers in such a twist.“

"You’ve got no affect over my knickers, trust me on that one.”

“And I’ve got no interest in your knickers,” Sirius mimicked, “trust me on that one.” He walked languidly towards the exit before James stopped him.

“Where are you going?” he asked, and Sirius smirked a little bit at the panic he sensed in James’ voice.

“I’m meant to be visiting my Uncle Alphard,” Sirius invented. “The poor chap isn’t doing so well,“ He turned before leaving, dipping his head in farewell. “Evans, always a pleasure.”

She nodded back. “Black.”

“Don’t be late for dinner!” James called, but Sirius had already disappeared to the kitchen, where the Potter’s kept their Floo network active.

Left alone, James was beginning to feel a bit uncomfortable. The last time he and Lily had spoken, or fought rather, was out at the Lake and it hadn’t been their finest moment. Lily didn’t seem to notice any sort of awkwardness, however, because she sat down primly on the spot that Sirius had just abandoned and turned her glare up at James.

"You’re a right prat, you know that?”

And suddenly he was right back there after O.W.L.’s, watching their friendship– as well as his pride and any chance he had with her– slip away.

“Oh, joy,” James drawled sarcastically, “I get to be verbally abused by Lily Evans in my own home. You sure you don’t want to move this outside? I’m sure there’ll be a lot more people for you to embarrass me in front of.”

“Please,” she scoffed impatiently, “you embarrassed yourself, Potter.”

“Is this why you’re here, then? To just pick up where we left off?”

“No,” Lily huffed in annoyance, “I’m here because I’m still pissed at you and that’s pissing me off,” she ripped off her hat and blew her now loose bangs out of her face. Lily’s hair had grown longer since school had let out, now reaching past her shoulders just slightly. James tried not to think about how pretty she looked, considering he was still pretty pissed about everything, too.

“That sounds like it’s your own problem,” James shrugged, “not mine.”

“Well, you started it! This is all _your_ fault and it’s been bugging me all summer so if you would please just accept that you’re a giant prick, then I think I can finally get some peace.”

“Oi! Again with the insults in my own home!“

"Maybe, but it’s _true_ –”

James cut her off, his eyes narrow and hard. He was getting awfully tired of Lily Evans and she’d not been here more than ten minutes. He raised his voice only slightly when he snapped, “You can’t keep saying I’m horrible when you see the shit the Slytherins have pulled, including your blessed friend Snivellus. That’s some deep double standard, Evans.”

“Of course I’m holding you to a different standard!” Lily jumped off the lounge, throwing her arms into the air as she did so, then immediately moved to point a bony finger at him. “You want to know why? Because you _need_ to be! You’re Captain and top of the class and students look up to you, do you know that?” She had started pacing up and down the length of the carpet and James watched her closely. “People respect you, Potter, for being a Potter! You can pull pranks and mess with people in the hallways and it’s charming!” Lily sounded affronted and baffled at this state of affairs and James tried to remember a time when he had seen her this flustered.

“Stop pretending that you have something to prove, because you don’t. You’ve got the friends and the name and the skill to make sure that no one ever doubts that you mean something, and you’re going to do something big with your life. Don’t act like you need to show off, and for the love of Merlin, do not ask me out as some sort of fucked up conquest.”

“You really think that’s why I–” But Lily cut him off, and her voice was icy.

“I’ve worked for everything, every friend, I’ve got. I’ve been doing my damndest to carve out a spot for myself at the top, and you are _wasting_ your potential when you take things so flippantly.”

She had thrown so much emotion at him that James couldn’t place what she was really upset about, where her frustrations were really coming from. He held out a hand to stop her from continuing.

“Slow down, Evans. Honestly, what is your damage?”

And for some reason, Lily smiled. “Confusing, right? I told you it’s been bugging me all summer until I realized… I’m jealous of you,” she shrugged, so casually and honestly that James was left even more confused than he had been, and she continued. “I’m upset that it seems like everything comes so easily for you, even though I know that can’t be true. But what’s really upsetting is that you have so much room to fuck up, and I feel like I don’t have any. And then I realized that this is just my reality now– I always have something to prove and everything to lose. That’s life as a Mudblood.”

“ _Don’t_ say that word.”

“See?” Lily said, and she spoke with a such a sad softness that James was taken aback for a second. The defeated look in her eye was in stark contrast with the fight that had just been there. “Now, this is exactly what I mean. You’re such an ass when you’re bragging about Quidditch or grades, but you’re one of the few people at Hogwarts that takes such offense to that word. You’re a really good person, James, and I wish that you’d act like one more often.”

Sometimes, Lily Evans made James Potter feel like a very small person. And then she said something he _really_ didn’t expect to hear.

“You’d make a good Head Boy, you know.”

“Now you’re just insulting me again,” he laughed, and laughing helped him see clearly again, as it usually did.

As embarrassed as he felt about the public rejection and fight, James knew he shouldered most of the responsibility for that. It also occurred to him that Lily might share some of his embarrassment– being asked out and then insulted in front of a crowd can’t have been pleasant for her either. He shouldn’t have done it. He had been rash and arrogant and he knew that all along.

James sighed, running a hand through his hair as he did so. “I was a right prat. _Am_ a right prat.”

Lily shrugged back at him. “I shouldn’t have said you were as bad as Snape.”

Oh, yes, time to open up the other wound he’d been nursing for a while now.

“Right, well, _I’ve_ got a bone to pick with _you_ , Evans. I don’t know what delusion you’re operating under but you have got to stop hanging around Snape, that kid is bad news–” Lily cut him off, the spark of agitation back in her eyes.

“It’s not any of your business who I decide to be friends with!”

“It _is_ my business when someone is willfully putting themselves in danger!”

“You’ve never even given him a chance, just because he’s a Slytherin–”

“–more like wanna-be Death Eater–”

“At eleven years old, when this started? Spare your dramatics, Potter,” she rolled her eyes. “Besides, I’m a big girl. I think I can handle myself.”

“You haven’t heard some of the things they say about you and the other Muggleborns,” James rebuked darkly. “Nasty, vile, violent things, Evans, that they say when they think no one can hear them. Mulciber and Avery– and Snape lets them, he agrees with them and participates! He hasn’t just been simply fascinated by the Dark Arts, he’s already performing them, why can’t you just see that?”

“You’re making this up,” Lily denied, and even James could tell that she didn’t believe herself. But he pressed on because she had to understand, she had to see that she deserved better than a Slytherin who was bound for nothing but evil.

“I hate to break it to you, but that is not the first time Snape has called you a- a, well, you know. And it’s definitely not going to be the last.” Inexplicably, James laughed, a hollow sound that mixed with more bitterness and frustration than humor. “You’re blinded by idealism, Evans. You’re putting your trust in the wrong hands and look at what happened– he insulted you in the worst way possible! But, oh, you’ll give him another chance just like you’ve given everyone, except for me.”

“Argh,“ Lily yelled, fingers gripping her hair in frustration. "Would you just shut it already? I get it. Severus and I stopped talking. For good this time.”

“Took you long enough,” James muttered. She glared at him again, but let the comment slide. They were quiet for a moment and Lily rung her hands together while James rolled his shoulders, a tick he developed after bad Quidditch practices.

“He keeps coming by my house,“ Lily confessed. "My mother almost used the garden hose on him last week.”

The image of Severus Snape at the home of Lily Evans gave him a bad taste in his mouth, but the image of Mrs. Evans assaulting him with a hose helped keep that feeling down. It still bugged him though. “Why does Snape know where you live?”

Lily’s cheeks tinged pink, and she tucked her hair behind her ear to avoid his gaze. "Probably on account of the fact that he lives two streets over.”

James weighed her response, wondering why she seemed embarrassed at the admittance.

“Now that’s just weird,” was the what he decided. She nodded and he picked up the bag of Berttie Bott’s, taking a handful and tossing it to Lily. They were sitting down across from each other now, all fight gone from the air. Lily dug through the pouch, pulling out a few to inspect carefully.

“Is this marshmallow or mashed potato?” She mused, then, “Damn. It’s cauliflower.”

“Bad luck, Evans.” James tossed a few beans in the air and caught them in his mouth. Lily rolled her eyes and he smirked, asking her, “How’d you know where I live?”

“Your mate Remus,” she smiled sweetly. “I owled him last week, and he told me something along the lines of making sure to knock you down a few pegs. Said something about smacking Sirius, too, if I were to see him.“

"That bloody traitor,” James said, but he was smiling so she figured he didn’t mean it very strongly.

“He turned you over quite easily, actually,” she said, knowing it would annoy James to be so pleased with herself. Lily turned her eyes away from the boy sorting jelly beans into piles and looked around the room, taking in the elegance of design and the detail on the wallpaper and the velvet curtains that draped down to the ground.

“I figured you must be rich,” Lily said frankly, “but I didn’t realize you’d be bleeding loaded.”

James rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment, though he couldn’t figure out why Lily Evans commenting on his house should make him slightly uncomfortable.

“Er, I guess?” He ran a hand through his hair. “It’s not something I think about.”

“If I had money I wouldn’t think about it, either,” Lily said, and James was spared any awkwardness in trying to respond when the clock struck four and loud chimes echoed throughout the house. Lily glanced down at her watch, unable to read the complicated astronomical clock that Euphemia Potter had placed on the shelf.

“Ah, fuck,” she swore. “I’ve gotta go. I was planning on being late to dinner, but now I’m going to be very unacceptably late.” She stood, grabbing her hat. “Though, that’s not so bad in the end. My sister’s boyfriend is coming for dinner.”

“I’ll walk you out,” James offered, then stood too. Lily raised an eyebrow at him, a smile tugging at her lips in jest.

“Afraid I’ll get lost? Steal the good silver?”

“Har, har,” James humored her. He almost led her to the kitchen before he realized Lily had come in through the front door, not by Floo Powder. She didn’t own a broom, nor had they learned Apparation yet.

“Hold on,” he said, his hand on the door knob now, “how’d you even get here?”

“Muggles do have their own ways of transport, you know,” Lily told him loftily, blinking in the sun as James opened the door for her and followed her out. She hopped down the front steps, her pink dress floating over her thighs, and landed with grace to point to a run down sedan that stuck out rather obviously in the grove that led up to the Potter’s place. James’ eyes widened as he connected the dots, then made a beeline to examine the car in more detail.

“You know how to use a _car_? Merlin, that’s complicated. Dangerous, too, isn’t it? Oh, wicked, I don’t know anyone who can fly a car– drive, I mean, drive a car. Is this circle how you direct it? How’d you manage that? Does it have some sort of sensory charm?”

She stared at him, her eyes narrowed in criticism. “Purebloods are really hopeless, you know that?”

“It’s probably the generations of inbreeding.”

That earned a burst of laughter from Lily, who immediately covered her mouth to stop herself. James smiled big and wide because making Lily Evans laugh was one of his favorite things to do. She opened the car door and climbed in, starting the engine up. James tapped the window and she rolled it down for him.

“Hey, Evans,” James leaned down so that their faces were even. “Any chance you’ll tell me where you live so I can storm into your house and insult you? To keep things equal and all.”

She didn’t miss a beat. “Not on your life, Potter.”

“That’s fine,” James shrugged. “Apparently my mate Remus is very loose with personal details. Or, you know, I could just ask my good friend Snivellus–”

“–don’t even _joke_ –”

“–or I could wander about all over the country until you tell me.”

“Hope you have good walking shoes,” she quipped. “Stay hydrated and all that.”

He smiled despite her refusal, because they’d gone back to their usual banter and he was worried that he’d messed that up for good. He stood straight, backing away from the car with his hands in his pockets.

“Then I’ll see ya around, Evans.”

"See ya, Potter,” she parroted, and then she turned a dial and music blasted from the open windows and she zoomed out of sight.

Lily Evans never does find James Potter on her doorstep that summer, but she does find his name on a few letters in the post– the _Muggle_ post.

“Who’s James Potter, dear? A friend from school?”

Lily grabs the letter from her mother’s grip and bites on her lip to hide her smile. “Just some bloke,” she shrugs, but she rips open the envelope with enthusiasm that wouldn’t be appropriate if he were ‘just some bloke.’

_Evans,_

_Not all Purebloods are hopeless, you know. Some of us still know how to open a book and research Muggle innovations. Hope this can be proof enough that the Potter’s are not yet so lost to the world._

_Your right prat,_

_James_

_P.S. Yes, that is my first name. It’d be great to hear you say it more often._

_P.P.S. Have you heard we’re getting a new Defense teacher? Peter says it’s me and Sirius’ fault and I reckon he might be right. That last round of Filibusters may have been too much for his heart._

_P.P.P.S. You really think I’m Head Boy material?_

 


End file.
